 Who's ready for a very 2020 Christmas Carol? A 1, and a 2, and a 1, 2, 3. Look to the sky way up and high, There in the night stars on a ride, Be on to class, now they're in class, Prison walls break, cold winds away, They will return, then come to learn, Who are kinds of fear when they are here? They will reclaim, holding their name, Hope's turned to black when they come back. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. These aren't the lyrics to Carol of the Bells! Maybe I addressed my letter to Satan this year instead of Santa. You know, funny story, that actually does happen quite more than you think. Whoopsie! Now, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere and have wandered outside as of late, You might have noticed that it's pretty cold out. Well, I mean, maybe. We've got some team members in Florida and as far as they're concerned, It's basically still summer. Well anyways, tis the season and there's probably a lot of people, Maybe yourself included, who are celebrating the midwinter holidays right now. And of course, today is a big one. Christmas! If you're extra keen, you might have even spent your last few weeks Putting up a tree, having some kind of feast, Drinking a fair bit, and binging Home Alone, The Santa Claus, or Elf to get into the holiday spirit. For those in the typical Western world, This is a pretty common season of activities. It's kind of nice actually. While perhaps a bit dark and foreboding What with the sun going to bed by four in the afternoon, There's always been some special energy in the air That brings people together under one roof to celebrate, Whether religious or secular. In a manner of speaking, it's that jolly old Christmas spirit Brought about by Santa, setting his elves to work. Unless they're all laid off this year because of COVID. Who knows. I mean, I hope Saint Nick wore a mask When setting up my pile of gifts this year. He's going to be getting into everyone's houses. Let's hope he isn't a super spreader. Okay, so the thing is, none of these are actually Christmas traditions. At least they weren't back in the day. In fact, if we really wanted to go for a hashtag Authentic Nativity Celebration, We shouldn't even be doing this in winter at all. While most of us know the general nativity story Of our man J.C. and his manger, The date of December 25th for his birthday Is a pretty huge leap, Given that it's never really explained. For one, Jesus' birthday is never actually given in the Bible, So all these different dates are pure speculation. In fact, by pure virtue of the fact That the nativity story involves shepherds Tending their flocks by night, In the middle of the supposed winter In ancient times with no central heating Is enough to tell you that someone, somewhere, Probably got the season wrong. The earliest source that says December 25th Was the date of birth for Jesus Is likely a book by Hippolytus of Rome, Written in the early third century. He based his views on the assumption That the conception of Jesus took place On the spring equinox, which was on the 25th of March In the Julian calendar, And then added nine months to calculate the date of birth. While this just seems like good luck, The belief took off because it made sense. See, the 25th of March is also the rough date For the crucifixion and a common belief At the time among early Christian and Jewish schools Was that the great prophets were conceived Into the afterlife on the same day That they were conceived into the physical world. And people just ran with it. Like everything though, that's not the whole story. As you might have guessed, Christianity was a sucker For appropriating older, well-established pagan holidays To make converting local people of a region easier. As far as Jesus' birthday goes, One of the more popular theories out there Is that he took over the Roman festival Of Natalis Solis Invicti, Celebration of the unconquered son For those who don't read Latin, A festival devoted to the Roman Persian sun god, Mithras, that was originally celebrated on December 25th, And celebrated the winter solstice As a symbol of the resurgence of the sun. The casting away of winter, And the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. Which is also very interesting that winter Technically begins on the solstice now. But anyway, Mithras and Jesus Even share a bunch of light-based symbolism, Including the crown of thorns or light rays. Naturally, early Christians denied this kind of thing Really strongly though. Also, just think about the environment At this time of year for a second. After the solstice, the days begin to lengthen With longer hours of sunlight, Which early Christians might have seen As representing the light of Christ Entering the world after the long nights of winter. Something very similar to the Celtic Samaen, Or Beltane. The birth of Mithras wasn't the only Roman festival That impacted the season though. While not specific to Jesus, The Roman festival of Saturnalia Count for that festive mindset we all love so much. See, Saturnalia, the Roman feast For the god of agriculture, Saturn, Took place on December 17th In the Julian calendar, And was also associated with the winter solstice. When it really got going though, The festivities often extended to December 23rd. It's probably the closest thing The Romans had to a modern Christmas. There were sacrifices in the forum, Followed by huge public feasts and drinks, Private gift giving, and all around party times. One of the defining characteristics of Saturnalia Was the upturning of Roman social norms. We're talking partying, public nudity, Wild sex parties, and a bunch of other things That we probably can't mention here Without this video getting banned. In general though, the time was characterized As a period of energy where people Put down their yearly responsibilities And took time to get together And blow off steam, an energy Present today, Wild sex parties aside. Okay, so we covered Jesus and the date of Christmas But where do all these other weird traditions Like caroling, hams, Christmas trees, And even Santa himself come from? Short answer? It's mostly just Odin Dressing up in different masks To get more drunk and eat more food than normal. Mad props to OG Gandalf. And then there's the whole psychedelic shaman thing But we'll get to that soon. Okay, generally speaking though The reason Christmas has so many other random traditions Is that it's a huge mashup of different pagan festivals And traditions from all over Europe Celebrating the middle of winter and the rebirth of the sun Is super super common though throughout Europe Especially with Germanic peoples. One of the bigger festivals that Christians incorporated When doing their whole conversion thing in Europe Was the Germanic festival of Yule. While we still don't know a whole bunch about it It was probably a festival honoring Odin The wild hunt and a thinning of the veil And was considered a time when ancestors or spirits Were closer to the living. Fun fact, we may even get the English word Jolly From the Saxon word Ghiuli And I hope I'm saying that right. Which was their word for either the month of December Or the Yuletide season in general. Anyway, a description of Yui practices In the Heimskringlad Let us know that it was a pretty rad time. The season involved a huge feast And the sacrifice of a Yule boar Which is likely where we get the custom of a turkey Or a ham and of course the whole ton of drinking Thinking about it logically Especially in Northern Europe Where it gets really really cold in the winter And the wind is howling People naturally huddled together indoors To pass the time. The howling wind was also sometimes associated With the ghostly procession of the wild hunt Led by Odin and was a collection Of wild animals and hunters That flew across the sky Wait a minute Wild animals flying over houses In the middle of the night being driven or led By a somewhat chubby guy with a beard And a belly full of mead You're thinking correctly This is arguably where we get the modern custom Of Santa riding a sleigh with animals from Now the other two major Yule customs That many of us are familiar with Are the Yule or Tree log And the Yule wasailing Otherwise known today as Christmas caroling The Yule log or tree Eventually became the modern Christmas tree But people used to hang apples on Yule trees For a variety of reasons The tradition of caroling is pretty old too With many Latin hymns being popular dance tracks From the 1150s To the 1350s But some theories suggest The tradition goes back to the practice Of the wasailing bowl In the middle ages people would go from door to door Singing and offering a drink From the wasale bowl in exchange for gifts In some parts of England There was even a custom of visiting cider orchards Reciting incantations And singing to the trees to promote a good harvest For the coming year Something that one of our writers has actually done And should definitely be done more Because he says it's super fun A simple question does fill our stockings though How do we get from Odin's Eight-legged horse run To a troop of reindeer floating across the sky The answer isn't set in snow But some have suggested that it may have begun With the traditions of Sami And Siberian shamans Consuming the psychedelic mushroom Fly agaric The Finnish historian T.I. Itkanen Mentioned that the entheogen was once used Among Sami sorcerers As a means of entering a trance state To communicate with the great reindeer spirit In fact, in eastern Siberia Shamans would often eat the shroom Or drink the pee of reindeer That had eaten it Thereby eliminating the negative effects of the trip Like sweating, nausea, and twitching If the Yuletide tales are to be believed The psychedelic would cause the shaman To experience the sensation of flight Or perhaps see their herds Crossing the northern sky through Lapland Perhaps this is how we got the idea Of Santa living at the North Pole too How the tradition made its way To modern times, however, is a bit of a mystery But that's not all though See, as mentioned before Some suggest that Santa is also Partially based on the Siberian shamans Themselves The Turkish monk Saint Nicholas Dressed in green, but according to Siberian folklore The shamans would occasionally Deliver fly agaric to the houses Of locals in the winter The shrooms would then be dried in socks by the fire And if the front door was snowed in Supposedly the shaman would enter through the roof They may have even dressed In colors reminiscent of the mushroom itself Red and white, which influenced The modern image of Santa Maybe that's why Santa is always laughing and jolly He's just tripping balls Lying through the sky with his pet reindeer Man, what a life! Best job in the world! Now, one last funny anecdote about Christmas though Is that it was actually banned in England for a while See, for the most part Medieval folk treated the Yuletide season As the same as Saturnalia With a big feast and a wind down Of cultural norms But it did kind of take a back seat To Epiphany Day on January 6th Which was supposedly the day that Jesus was baptized But when the Puritan Christians Were partying at Yul, they all rushed in With no pagan signs So much so that in 1647 England banned Christmas Which led to some absolutely hilarious Riding in history Long story short, since a lot of the early British settlers To America were Puritan Most Americans were pretty grinchy Up until the late 1800s When Dickens' Christmas Carol gained huge popularity And so as far as the modern American Conception of Santa goes He's kind of like his own holiday now And is a big smush up of different characters The base was the Turkish monk Saint Nicholas as we mentioned Who had the habit of leaving gifts for good children Mixed in with old British folk figure Of old man winter, a personification Of the Yuletide itself Probably an old pagan elemental god With a dash of Odin, some psychedelic shamans And a whole lot of the Dutch Cinterklaas thrown in Ultimately, the season of Christmas Is really just a huge myth collab From tons of different cultures And it's interesting to see that despite the wide ranging Geographical and historical origins The central messaging and spirit Of the holidays has stayed the same It's a time to come together with family Light a fire and sing songs While eating a huge feast And exchanging presents and chilling out All the while, winter snow falls down Outside and Odin and his host of spirits Come closer to us mortals Resulting in that wonderful holiday magic That we all know and love Even in Christianity, the coming of the wise men Suggested that Christmas was somehow related To giving gifts While much less attested, there's also one more Theory that the traditions of Christmas Eve Were inspired by the Anglo-Saxon festival Of Modra Night The Night of the Mothers A festival on the 24th That was devoted to the old Germanic matrona Mother deities in northwestern Europe In which mother goddesses were Honored and given offerings All in all, with winter celebrations Taking place throughout almost every culture And world in some form It's that time of year where the universe Practically gives us permission to chill out For a week, eat, drink and be merry And filled with yuletide spirits So from all of us at Spirit Science Merry Christmas, yule, mother's night Happy psychedelic journeys And whatever else you're doing Let's make 2021 even better than the last Not like that's gonna be all that hard Toodles!